Trump lashes out at McCain on health care vote

24 September 2017

President Donald Trump warned on Twitter on Friday, "Rand Paul, or whoever votes against Hcare Bill, will forever (future political campaigns) be known as 'the Republican who saved ObamaCare.'" The president is working the phone on the issue and is "open to having face-to-face meetings", adviser Kellyanne Conway said on Fox News.

Graham remained optimistic that McCain would eventually support the bill, telling an ABC affiliate on Thursday, "He won't vote because of our friendship, I would never ask him".

Republicans hoped that Ducey's support would help convince McCain to support the bill.

But this time, Trump came as the president, using his first big endorsement trip outside of the Beltway to tout the establishment's favored candidate in the heated special election to fill the seat vacated by Attorney General Jeff Sessions. "Great for Arizona. McCain let his best friend LG down!" "We finally found an alternative that makes sense - take the money and power out of Washington - the same amount of money [we] would have spent on Obamacare and let states design systems", he said. Lisa Murkowski, R-Alaska, Sen. Republican Sen. Susan Collins of ME has said she is leaning "no" on the proposal, and there are still questions as to where Alaska Republican Sen.

McCain joins Kentucky Republican Rand Paul in opposing the bill, while Susan Collins of ME said Friday she is leaning against it, according to a Portland newspaper.

"Our research indicates that he is the decisive factor", said Steven Law, the president of the Senate Leadership Fund, a super PAC tied to Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., that has spent nearly $8 million backing unusual.

In a surprise statement, McCain, the 2008 Republican presidential nominee, said: "I can not in good conscience vote for the Graham-Cassidy proposal". I'm excited about solutions we have found in Graham-Cassidy-Heller-Johnson.

McConnell had said earlier this week that he meant to hold a Senate vote next week before a September 30 deadline to use a fast-track procedure allowing a simple majority vote.

During the election campaign Trump had pledged to quickly kill President Barack Obama's health care program - "It will be easy", he contended - and he has publicly chided McConnell for not winning passage before now.

"Alaska would fare very, very poorly", he said according to the Times.

Overall, the poll shows that Republican members of Congress who have gone against Trump's policies may find themselves in tough races if challenged.

The Joint Legislative Budget Committee's analysis of the legislation pending in the U.S. Senate say current law would provide Arizona with $4.9 billion in 2020 for Medicaid and the health exchange but only $3.2 billion under the bill. There'd be hearings and markups in the committees of jurisdiction. Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer of NY praised McCain in a statement Friday and said, "I have assured Senator McCain that as soon as repeal is off the table, we Democrats are intent on resuming the bipartisan process".

But with next week's deadline looming, and a debt-ceiling and government funding fight that wrapped up more quickly than expected, Republicans - including the President - rallied around Graham-Cassidy last week, even though there was little evidence to suggest that any of the divisions that prevented the advancement of bills earlier this year had been remedied. GOP Sen. Lamar Alexander of Tennessee and Democratic Sen. It would also enable states to circumvent ACA requirements for coverage of pre-existing conditions.